What Is The Best Jazz Album Ever???

daza152

Super Member
Hey guys as far as I knew it was easily Kind of Blue, not sure which version is best however....I recently went to a great little record store to be told it was an album called Jazz at the Pawnshop. and is well known as one of the finest Jazz recordings of the 20th century? what are your thoughts please....
 
Those two are definitely up there. I think I'd go with Kind of Blue myself. Other votes would be "The black saint and the sinner lady" and "Something else".
 
Jazz at The Pawnshop is known for its supposedly great audio quality. I don't know, because I've never owned a copy. But as music, it is FAR from being the best jazz album ever recorded. Kind of Blue IS great jazz. But there has been too much great jazz music to call it, or any recording the best!
 
Jazz at the Pawnshop has been pegged by some audiophiles as the best-sounding jazz album ever. That legend does not necessarily make it worth a listen.

But the answer to your question is undoubtedly Jimmy McGriff's The Worm.

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I've never heard Jazz at the Pawnshop either. At first I thought the OP was referring to Jazz at Massey Hall, which is no audiophile wonder. I just put on Massey Hall - sound quality is better than I remembered, certainly listenable and worthwhile given the players.

Agree there's no single greatest jazz album, but if I were forced to pick only a single one to listen to for the rest of my life, it'd be one of:

Kind of Blue
Sunday at the Village Vanguard or Waltz for Debby

Though if I could cheat the take all 3 discs of the Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, I'd have to go with that.
 
I don't know about best but my favorite for many years is "Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy". One of the best song writers ever done by one of the best jazz men ever.
 
I'm not into jazz as much as some, but I personally (IMHO) think Grover Washington Jr's "Soul Box" and Thelonious Monk's "Monk's Dream" are the best.
 
Granted that it's a ridiculous question and there can be no answer, the answer clearly is: 'An Electrifying Evening with the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet,' recorded in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.
 
Hey guys as far as I knew it was easily Kind of Blue, not sure which version is best however....I recently went to a great little record store to be told it was an album called Jazz at the Pawnshop. and is well known as one of the finest Jazz recordings of the 20th century? what are your thoughts please....
I own both and Pawnshop is highly over-rated. 50th anniversary edition of Blue is darn good but I'd rate any of several Bill Evans albums as better for listening, if not of equal importance.
 
^^^^^THIS^^^^^
Any further discussion is absolutely pointless.

I agree with the above but the title of the post and question posed inside are not quite the same. It would probably be almost as hard to get any kind of consensus on the finest recording as best album but at least you would be asking a smaller audience, audiophiles as opposed to music fans which might make things easier.

I have Jazz at the Pawnshop and Antiphone Blues on LP, both are up there with the best recordings I have ever heard.
 
I agree with the above but the title of the post and question posed inside are not quite the same. It would probably be almost as hard to get any kind of consensus on the finest recording as best album but at least you would be asking a smaller audience, audiophiles as opposed to music fans which might make things easier.

I have Jazz at the Pawnshop and Antiphone Blues on LP, both are up there with the best recordings I have ever heard.
I also have a fantastic copy (deluxe SACD boxed set) of Jazz At The Pawnshop. I agree that it is indeed a very fine recording, however it's a fine recording of a rather uninspired musical performance. I was initially enthralled with the "magic" of the recording, the sweet notes from the vibes hang in a palpable space like none I had experienced before. The recording is very good at "putting the listener inside the venue" for sure, I was initially impressed by the very real tinkling of the glassware and sounds of the kitchen going on etc but the music itself left me wishing that the drinks were real and the feeling that I'd be okay stepping outside for a few minutes for a cigarette and I'm not a smoker. My feeling is that no matter how "quality" the recording is, it's not worth a damn if you wouldn't care to listen to it over and over again. :)
 
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